THE man in charge of the county’s infrastructure says he is not hearing demand from businesses for a rail link to Rotherwas.

Cllr Philip Price told fellow Cabinet members that his findings are at odds with those of the county’s Independent group which claims that there is tremendous support for a new link from Hereford railway station to the industrial estate south of the River Wye.

The authority has agreed to carry out a development plan to see whether there is a business case for the proposal.

But Cllr Price warned the project was far from getting off the ground.

“There is a lot of work to be done to get this work to fruition,” he told cabinet members during a meeting at Hereford Shirehall.

“I am not getting replies from the Local Enterprise Partnership or the Enterprise Zone (based in Rotherwas) that there is a big demand for this.

“This is not as straightforward as you think.”

He said one of the problems is rail operators indicating an increase in costs because of the turnaround times of trains which would be caused by the link.

But Cllr Bob Matthews, whose Independent Group has led calls for the link and station, says there are many who are behind the idea.

“Rail has a big future for us in the coming years,” he said.

“We should be looking at this with determination to move it forward in some way.

“We have had tremendous support from the public and business people.

“Let’s hope we can move forward and get some positive action.”

Cabinet was told rail operator London Midland has indicated it may not be able to carry out feasibility studies as its franchise ends in 2018.

Last September, full council backed a move asking the council to take urgent and positive action to produce a development plan to deliver the work.

At last week’s meeting, the cabinet backed the idea of establishing a five-point development plan to see if the project is likely to work for the best.